Did you know that your sciatica or sciatica-like symptoms are most likely caused by your posture? Now, I'm not a doctor, but I bet I can prove to most of you that your sciatica is coming from your posture in this article.
And if not, I'll love to know your thoughts in the comment section after you try it and complete the video.
My name's Adam from Train and Massage, and here's what you're going to learn:
- I'm going to teach you how to relieve sciatica pain with our sciatica home remedies.
- I'm going to show you what are the best sciatica nerve exercises.
- And I'm also going to show you my formula for keeping sciatica and even low back muscle pain away.
But before we can get started, let's talk about one of the biggest problems when it comes to sciatica and why the normal solutions won't work.
A big problem we tend to have when it comes to sciatica and why the normal solution won't work.
Anytime we have sciatic pain, our first reaction is to see a chiropractor or our doctor. And even though I believe most of them have our best interest at heart, seeing them for sciatica pain usually results in minimal and temporary relief at best.
The problem is the solutions your doctors give you like physical therapy or getting adjustments, won't work long term because they only address one piece of your pain puzzle. For you to feel long term relief, there are multiple therapies you should be going through in a specific order.
What's interesting though is there are separate therapies and modalities for each of the stages on how to relieve sciatica pain but nothing that has them all integrated, until now.
How is sciatica caused by your posture?
When we sit all day long, we will eventually develop overactive hip flexor muscles. When these hip flexors become overactive, they will begin to yank on the front of the pelvis and pull the hips into an anterior pelvic tilt. When this happens, the back side of the pelvis will get pushed up, just like a seesaw with one side down.
When the back of your hips gets pushed up, it will begin to collide against your spine which compresses and pinches the nerves that exit the spine, aka your sciatic nerve.
Now our hips are stuck in the anterior tilt, which means we are living in a mechanically compromised state of bad posture. I use to believe the older we got, the more pain we felt. But now, I believe the pain we feel as we get older has more to do with our posture catching up to us.
This can lead to things like mid back pain, low back pain when standing, herniated disks, and much more.
What are the best sciatica nerve exercises to relieve pain?
Now these sciatica home remedies are 10x more effective if you the first thing you need to do is check-in with yourself and your pain level on a 1-10 scale, with 10 being the highest pain and 1 the lowest. Without a basic assessment like this, you will never know if this helped you or not.
Now it's time to release the tight muscles that are overactive and most likely causing your sciatic pain. Want our best Sciatica Pain Relief Sequence for FREE? if so click here.
Release These Overactive Muscles
Piriformis
The piriformis is a muscle that is most likely taking over the job of the glute muscles. It does basically the same job as the glute max and it lies directly underneath it. The sciatic nerve runs right next to this muscle, and when the piriformis becomes overactive, it can cause compression on the nerve. When you learn how to release your piriformis, chances are you're going to learn how to relieve sciatica pain. It's that powerful of a release.
Quads
Our quads, specifically the rectus femoris is a common quad muscle that gets overactive from sitting too long. This muscle goes from your knee all the way past your hips, meaning this is a big muscle. This muscle is also usually the problem when it comes to having low back muscle pain.
Hamstring
The sciatic nerve runs all the way down the leg, and a piece of that nerve goes under our hamstrings. So, with the same principles as the piriformis, if the hamstrings get too tight, they can cause compression on the sciatic nerve and end up causing pain.
Calves
The sciatic nerve goes all the way down in the calf as well, and I'm not gonna lie, I haven't seen many people who don't have tight calves. Now, technically, the sciatic nerve stops around the knee and turns into the tibial nerve but releasing this nerve will help your sciatica pain as well.
Your goal is to foam roll each muscle for 1-2 minutes. I have included videos on how to do them below. Make sure to foam roll correctly. By the way, if you live in San Diego and would like one of us experts to help you find the tight muscles and get rid of them, then check out our In-Home, No Oil Massage Here.
How to Foam Roll Correctly
Use the foam roller to SLOWLY search for a tender spot on the muscle you want to release. Once you find that tender spot, hold pressure there for 15-60 seconds. Make sure you are able to take deep breaths in and out while on that tender spot. The reason I say that is because when we are on a spot that hurts, we tend to hold our breath, and that will defeat the purpose of letting the muscle relax. If you can't relax, neither can your muscle.
Stretch These Overactive Muscles
Sometimes we have to help our body get back to its normal posture. Otherwise, the body will just go back to how it was. Which is why, after you are done releasing all the overactive muscles, you now have to stretch those same muscles.
When you stretch your muscles, you are helping them lengthen again because they forgot how to stretch out. Have you ever heard of muscle memory? There's some real truth to it, and if you don't stretch after releasing your overactive muscles, you will experience that muscle going back to its memory of bad posture.
Your goal is to stretch each muscle for 1-2 minutes during your sciatica home remedies. I have included videos on how to do that below. Make sure to breathe during your stretches.
Click on the Name of the Muscle to See the Video
The First Muscle to Train to Keep the Pain Away
There's one more step you need to take to learn how to relieve sciatica pain, and unfortunately, this is where most physical therapists or corrective exercise specialists start and where most massage therapists end their session.
To keep the pain from coming back, you need to train or activate the opposing muscle group you just released with sciatica nerve exercises. Every muscle has an opposite, whether it's biceps to triceps, quads to hamstrings, or your subscapularis to infraspinatus.
When you train the opposite muscle at the end of this formula, not only are you creating better posture and a stronger structure, but you're also avoiding a losing battle with the overactive and chronically shortened muscles you just released and stretched.
Your goal is to perform 1-3 sets of 12-20 reps at a slow tempo for exercise 1. For exercise 2, aim for 15-60 seconds. I have included videos on how to do these sciatica nerve exercises. Make sure to breathe during your exercises.
Click on the Names of the exercise to learn how to perform them properly
Hopefully, you understand why your sciatica is coming from your posture, and how to relieve sciatica pain. Leave any questions you have in the comment section.
But before I go, I do want to answer a question I saw earlier in a group chat.
A Question I found about sciatica.
The question was, why do I get sciatica-like symptoms down the leg that feel worse when driving?
I used to work with a client who had this same problem. He had to work up to 2 hours away almost daily and he would describe the pain during the drive as unbearable. Now, besides working on him with some massage, stretching, and training, I also had him make a small adjustment to his seat.
Most cars are designed for comfort, but what that means is the soft seat forces our hips to sit below our knees, which is basically what we just talked about with having a pelvic tilt. So, to combat this, I have 2 small recommendations.
- Train your core with the sciatica nerve exercises above: this will help keep your pelvis in a more neutral position, especially when you go through the formula above.
- Adjust your seat to where your hips are leveled with your knees. You may have to find something to sit on, but this helps by forcing you to sit on the front of your butt instead of your tailbone.